Friday, July 23, 2010

One for the road

Easy on the Lemming Harry

Petersfield’s new Netherregions pub, looking to set itself apart from other local hostelries, may start serving all its drinks in specially adapted rodents designed by BrewDog a controversial Scottish brewery.

The Fraserburgh-based brewer has recently hit the headlines by announcing that they brew the strongest beer available planet Earth.

Their new ale, called The End of History is 55% alcohol and completes a menu of strong beers which include a comparative light ale named Tokyo at 18.2%, Tactical Nuclear Penguin at 32% and Sink the Bismark at 41%.

More quirky though, for maximum enjoyment, it is suggested that the beer should be drunk using the corpse of a rodent as a kind of iconic bottle or glass holder. Rats, squirrels, stoats and hares have all been converted into receptacles by taxidermists employed by the brewery.

A stiff one

BrewDog have been lambasted for making such a potent drink available at a time when society is concerned about the drinking habits and health of young people.

The Scottish brewer defended itself by saying that their drinks were originally destined for the Scottish market, popularity and clever PR has resulted in far wider distribution than they could have imagined.

Carrie Oooot speaking on behalf of BrewDog told Newswire: “Don’t forget the people of Scotland need to be pie-eyed to be able to exist in their native cold wet climate. Some of them drink whisky by the pint; our ale is hardly strong in comparison.

“Also, I hardly think we can be in any way blamed for lowering life expectancy in a region where the deep-fried Mars Bar is the national dish.”

The young of today’s society will naturally be drawn to any drink labelled “the strongest ale in the world” even attracting lager drinkers who will be unused to drinking anything with flavour.

The novelty of quaffing your drink through a squirrel or rat will also add a certain uniqueness to the experience for those that are so inclined.

Netherregions will delight in the press that this move is bound to attract and shrugged off any suggestion that cleaning the glasses is going to take a little longer.

Helen Back, one of the new staff at The Red Lion, laughed at the prospect of serving beer in a rodent told us: “Many of our customers come in with the intention of getting rat-faced, they can now achieve this quite literally, and more quickly.”